Vedanta: Heart of Hinduism

By Hester Lynch Piozzi, Samuel Johnson, James Boswell

Book Overview

Vedanta is the most encompassing and open of the six orthodox systems of Hinduism and is considered the quintessence of Eastern thought and mysticism. At the center of Vedanta lie the texts of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. Beginning with the premise that man is a divine being whose greatest source of strength is his intuition, Vedanta seeks not merely the accumulation of knowledge but rather the annihilation of all knowledge. Its goal is an unclouded inner world that will allow us to exist untroubled by the complexity of the outside world. For those interested in the concise and intelligent overview, as well as those who seek a better understanding of what is at the heart of Hinduism, Vedanta is a unique and thought-provoking guide.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802132626
• ISBN13: 9780802132628
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

"Tat Tvam Asi!" Vedanta's origins and development...

Once seen as an esoteric, overly intellectual, and atheistic quasi-religious philosophy, Vedanta now has a solid spiritual following in the west. Though not as prevalent as Zen or Buddhism, a dozen or more centers have sprung up in the United States since Swami Vivekananda's daring and rocky 1893 visit. One system, Shankara's Advaita Vedanta, has even found a niche in comparative philosophy circles. But the most prevalent...

Excellent And Useful Survey Of The Main Elements of Vedanta

Torwesten has put together a survey of Vedanta along more or less historical lines. The first half of the book treats the teachings of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita; the second half looks at Shankara's non-dualism, the swing back to theism in Ramanuja, and then the more recent developments of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and Ramana Maharshi. This is a survey rather than strictly speaking an introduction; in...

Excellent summation of Vedanta

Overall, an excellent historical summation of Vedanta. Torwesten attempts to synthesize the various philosophies of Vedanta (especially Bhakta and Jnana yogas), and to reconcile the austere and intellectually dry views of Adi Shankaracharya with the broader views of Sri Ramakrishna and other Vedantic sages with similar or more "liberal" viewpoints, and does a pretty fair job of it.